Nov. 2013 Listening, Contemplation and Meditation: A Study Retreat on Right View with Ven. Dhammadinna and Tenzin Jesse

Nov. 2013 Listening, Contemplation and Meditation: A Study Retreat on Right View with Ven. Dhammadinna and Tenzin Jesse

TEACHERS

Vennerable Dhammadinna began her study and practice of meditation at IMS in Barre in 1980 while studying biology at the University of Massachusetts. Upon receiving her degree in 1983 she took robes with the great ascetic Burmese meditation master Ven. Taungpulu Sayadaw at his forest monastery near Santa Cruz, California. In 1984 she returned to IMS for a retreat with Ven. U Pandita Sayadaw and stayed for an extended period of practice, culminating in a three-month retreat with the Indian meditation master Dipa Ma. Soon thereafter Ven. Dhammadinna joined Ven. Taungpulu Sayadaw in Burma and for the next few years lived a traditional monastic life, practicing meditation and joining the daily almsrounds in the villages.

After Sayadaw’s death she was invited to join the community of Ajahn Buddhadasa in South Thailand and help teach the monthly retreats. Ajahn Buddhadasa’s progressive outlook on Dharma, his creativity, and his openness toward women as practitioners and teachers made this period of study, practice, and teaching especially meaningful. In 2000 Ven. Dhammadinna met His Holiness the Dalai Lama and he accepted her as a personal student. This began an exciting time experiencing the cross-fertilizing power of the Theravada and Mahayana traditions. In 2006 she was invited to Seattle where she co-founded Bodhiheart Sangha with Tenzin Jesse. Ven. Dhammadinna is deeply committed to the practices of samatha and vipassana meditation shared by both the Theravada and Mahayana.

Tenzin Jesse worked for five years as a crisis counselor after graduate studies in psychology and then spent two decades guiding wilderness sea kayaking expeditions on the Pacific Ocean. In the midst of her years in the wilderness with the bears and the whales, Jesse heard His Holiness the Dalai Lama teach in 1993 and was profoundly inspired. She began studying Tibetan Buddhism and has subsequently practiced with teachers in the Gelug, Kagyu and Nyingma traditions. In 2006 Jesse completed the studies of the seven-year Lama Tsong Khapa Master’s Program, a traditional Buddhist monastic curriculum including the Abhisamayalamkara, Madhyamakavatara and Abhidharmakosha. She has written a Tibetan language textbook and recently published a new translation of the King of Prayers.

Tenzin Jesse began teaching the Dharma in Seattle more than a decade ago. In 2004 she relocated to India to study with the Dalai Lama and received ordination from His Holiness shortly thereafter. Tenzin Jesse returned her ordination after coming home to Seattle and founding BodhHeart Sangha.